Station 51 A shift returned with about an hour left of shift. The run was a traffic accident with entrapment and injuries that required transport to Rampart. It was not a surprising sight to see Johnny show up early thirty minutes early to catch up with the shifts and life with the other firefighters. Since the transition from being partners on the same shift to being Captains on different shifts, it was difficult to have the same close relationship between Gage and DeSoto that developed since spending 24 hours with one another every three days. And that didn't include the time together spent when they weren't working. The two men were repairing the damage done when Johnny kept quiet about Jennifer attending the fire academy, leaving Roy DeSoto in the dark. Roy was not quiet when expressing his anger towards Johnny for putting Jennifer in danger by not only keeping her secret, but being one of the academy leaders to teach her. If it was up to him, Jennifer would never be in such a dangerous profession, but he was slowly accepting her choice. She was eighteen years old now, barely an adult, but still an adult. He had almost lost her because of his anger and fear when she moved out of the house and refused to speak to him.

"You're here pretty early," Roy noticed as he walked into the office. Johnny sat at the Captain's desk with his head in a book. Roy glanced at his watch to see that there was still about an hour before shift change. Johnny lifted his head with his crooked smile on his face.

"I'm just studying. I've only got three weeks to cram all this information in. I don't know if I can do it." Johnny pinched the bridge of his nose and lowered his head as he tried to rid himself of the developing headache.

"I'm sure you'll do well with the Battalion Chief's exam. Plus Hank will be doing the oral boards and I'm sure he'll put in a good word for you." Word on the streets was that Battalion Chief Hank Stanley was on his way to a promotion himself for an acting deputy chief position for the division, if everything went well.

"There's just one thing that's puzzling me," Johnny said.

"What is it junior?"

"How come you're not taking the test? They only give promotional tests once a year, and with your experience. Well, you'd be a good battalion chief."

Roy smiled at the thought of overseeing several stations, but his smile quickly faded. "I guess I'm just not ready to leave the station. It's home."

"I get that. But I'm going to move up, maybe be the youngest Battalion Chief if I get it this year." Roy nodded. Johnny looked around the room. This was his home as well. "Maybe if Hank moves up and I take his post overseeing this district, maybe I could move the chief's quarters here. Remodel the captain's quarters." Roy shook his head as his friend quickly continued on with the plans in his mind to stay at 51's. He couldn't blame Johnny as it had been both their homes for over fifteen years. He stopped in the middle of all his plans as he came to the realization. "I'd have to leave, huh?"

A quick nod was all that Roy could give. It was difficult to picture life outside of 51's. When Hank got the promotion to Battalion Chief, his Captain position was open and with the good word from Battalion Chief Stanley, his rank on the list, and acing the orals, he was able to procure the 51 A shift. Only a month later, the Captain on B shift announced his retirement and Gage was placed, along with the promotion of Chet Kelly to Engineer on the B shift.

Johnny needed a break from the studying and decided to put feelers out. "So, I've got a little lady shadowing us today."

A sigh escaped Roy as his shoulders slumped forward. "Do me a favor. Go hard on her. She's got a lot to learn to keep her safe on the job. I just don't want anything bad to happen to her." He shook his head thinking about his little girl and how fast she had grown up. It went by in a flash. "It seems like she was bandaging up baby dolls just yesterday. Now she's doing it to real, live people. When did we get so old?" Johnny groaned as he pushed himself out of the chair and gave Roy a quick pat on the shoulder. Johnny's started to have faint lines at the corners of his eyes. His once dark hair started to have sprinkles of gray. Roy's hair was thinning and he had packed on a few pounds.

Jenny's hours were 9:00 am to 5:00 pm on her shadow days. It was something she was happy for, so she could enjoy sleeping in. She arrived fifteen minute before the start of her shift and parked her car in the lot. Jenny placed her duffle bag on her shoulder and pasted a big smile on her face. Today she was working out of Station 51 and because her father worked the previous day, she was going to have Johnny as her Captain for the day and would be working alongside of David.

She looked around and knew all of the faces that surrounded the table. Chet and Johnny have been considered her uncles for most of her life. Then there was David who has been her rock for several months and her best friend. Filling the rest of the squad were firefighter Jesus Martinez and Paramedics Jerry Jones and Randy Kincaid. All of which have been coming to the growing monthly picnic that the original 51 crew vowed to have after Roy's and Johnny's promotions to Captains, Hank's promotion to Chief, and Chet's promotion to Engineer. When she entered, she got warm welcomes from most of the guys.

With the paramedic program, she worked the Emergency Department on Fridays for the first month, then the second month she shadowed the EMT crew, and the third month she was put to the test by being more hands on. She had been to several stations over the past month, but this was her first week with 51. Jenny saw most of the guys sitting at the table with coffee and she grabbed a cup herself, adding a lot of sugar and milk to just a little bit of coffee.

As the conversation progressed, the guys discussed dinner plans. "I think the boots should cook dinner tonight," announced Chet. Jenny and David looked at each other.

"Yeah, we can handle that." David said with a grin on his face. "I'll make my world famous spaghetti. Jenny said it was pretty good." Jenny's picked up her coffee mug and held it to her lips, hoping that she wouldn't get asked a very important question. Her eyes closed as she willed the group for silence.

"Pretty good, huh, Jenny? But is it as amazing as Stoker's Spaghetti though?" Chet asked as he knew that she had Stoker's Spaghetti a few months ago. All eyes turned on Jenny.

Jenny took a long swig from the mug hoping people would get bored staring at her. It was no use. Their eyes still focused on her. She decided to take on a new tactic when the stares continued. "Um, shoot, I still need to change yet." She got up from the table but she could still feel the stares.

"Jenny, how does it compare to Stoker's spaghetti?" David asked in a sing song tone of voice with a sly smile on his lips. He could tell that she was uncomfortable with all eyes on her and trying to keep the peace.

She turned around with her head down as she stood in the doorway to the bay. She let out a long sigh. "You're spaghetti is good, but it's no Stoker's Spaghetti. I don't know what he does to that sauce, but it is amazing." And with that the discussion focused on Stoker's spaghetti.

"When he makes his homemade pasta. Oh man, don't get me wrong that sauce dresses up store bought spaghetti. But, oh man, that pasta. I don't know what he puts in that sauce, but he hit me the one day with a spoon after I tried lifting the pot to see what he put in it. I asked for the recipe but he said I wasn't worthy of knowing the family secret recipe," Johnny recalled. Chet laughed.

"You aren't worthy! You are the worst cook!" Chet commented.

"I am a culinary artist. As I recall, Mike never gave you the recipe!" Johnny shot back.

"I never asked for it!" I never asked because I knew he'd never give it to me, Chet thought. "I think he ended up giving the recipe to Marco," Chet followed up.

Johnny whipped his head around, hurt that Lopez got the recipe and he didn't. "Come on, Marco can cook. And I think he exchanged his chili recipe for it."," Chet explained. Johnny shrugged now understanding as Marco's chili was a family secret recipe and just as delicious as Stoker's Spaghetti.

"Well, it looks like we'll just have to wait and see how yours taste," Johnny challenged David. David looked at Jenny who already had a defeated look on her face because she knew there was no way that David could beat Stoker's spaghetti.

Jenny mouthed the word "sorry." David tried to appear hurt, but Jenny could see the smile on his face.

"Well that's settled! You two have dinner duties. Come on Jenny, I'll show you to your locker," Johnny said as he got up from the table. Jennifer knew where to go without a tour as her father had showed her the station many times growing up. Johnny showed her to the locker and left her. As she opened up her locker, she was greeted with pictures of naked women. She tore them off the inside of the locker door. Her tears stung her eyes but she wasn't going to let them fall. This wasn't supposed to happen at 51's. This was going to be the safe place, she thought.

She walked the pictures to the trashcan by the door, when she heard a knock on the door with Johnny sticking his head in. Her disappointment on her face did not go unnoticed by Johnny. When you get finished, meet me in the office so I can go over the expectations.

Jennifer nodded as she turned around to head back to her locker. It was a picture of women's breasts staring up from the garbage can that caught Johnny's eyes. Sure he was guilty as the next guy at looking at dirty magazines, but he would never let anyone share this with Jennifer. He picked the pictures out of the trash can, in case it would be needed for evidence for harassment. The pictures went into his pocket without a second glance.

It was a few minutes later when Jennifer presented herself with a salute and a forced smile to Captain Gage. She tried to talk herself of the disappointment that she felt with the pictures that were taped in her locker, but she just couldn't shake it. Her disappointment continued as she saw the pictures on Gage's desk.

"Shut the door behind you. We need to discuss this," Gage said. He motioned for her to sit after she had shut the door. She continued standing but now with her arms crossed.

"There's nothing to discuss, Captain." Her eyes averted to away from him.

"I won't stand for this in my station. I want you to file a harassment report so that this can stop." She shook her head vigorously. She had spoken about the harassment to Firefighter Linda Popp, her friend who was a firefighter and had gone through the academy with. Linda had introduced her to a few other women who were, or had been, in the fire service. Their advice had been "don't be that girl. The girl that starts trouble." A few that had left the service had spoken up, to only be removed from a preferred station, denied promotions, or were not selected for additional trainings or conferences.

"Captain Gage, I can't and I won't. It's just some harmless pictures. I dealt with worse in the academy." It was that dig that hurt the most. Johnny was her squadron captain during her time at the fire academy. "Is there anything else?"

He saw that she wasn't going to budge on the subject. "Just listen to the paramedics and do what they say. And I want you to think about filing for harassment. If you won't, I'm still going to be speaking to the crew after you leave."

"I don't want you to say anything." He wasn't about to drop it. "Fine, if that's it, can I be dismissed." He only gave her a nod. She gave a salute as she left the office. He could sense the sarcasm coming from the salute. Although she was an adult, she still had moments of immaturity.

The day moved quickly for Jenny. Although she was to shadow, the paramedics had her do splints as all firefighters have had that training. She impressed the paramedics without needing much guidance. Jerry remarked that she moved like she had a lot of practice with splinting. Little did they know that her upbringing was spent splinting up her dad, mom, brother, uncles, teddy bears, and anything else she could get her hands on. Although her family hoped for a nurse, reflecting back on her childhood, she knew that she was destined to be a paramedic.

The tones interrupted the conversation at the table at station 51. "Station 51 traffic accident with injuries. Cross street Alameda and East Sepulveda. Time out 18:24," the sound of Sam Lanier came over the speaker.

Captain Gage wrote down the address and passed it to Jerry who was coming out of the kitchen. "Station 51. KMG-365," Gage answered into the radio. Jerry drove the squad with Jenny riding in the middle and Randy in the passenger seat.

As the crew pulled up, Jerry and Randy started pulling out the drug box, biophone and first aid kit. Randy reached through the driver's window and felt for a pulse. It was not a surprise when he could not find one. She was slumped over the side. There was a large dent in the middle of the dash with her purse to the floor of the passenger side. All the contents scattered to the floor. Looking at the placement of the car, she had crossed the center line. Probably going for the purse. A quick glance to the dash revealed the gray matter. "Let's check the other car," Randy said. Not having to say anything more to his partner.

However, Jenny did not get the implication of that statement. She also reached into the car and felt no pulse. A quick tug on the door, revealed that it was stuck. "I need a spreader now. We got to get her out!" Jenny called out to no one in particular. David ran to the engine to pull out the requested equipment.

Cap was about to head over to Jenn before Jerry grabbed Cap's arm. "Gray matter on the dash, Cap." He shook his head as he went to the other vehicle. Cap made eye contact to David and waved him off.

"David, Rich, wash off the gas and pull the battery. Chet, charge the lines," Captain Gage ordered his crew. David looked at Jennifer, worried about how she would take handle the fact that David had stopped retrieving the tool. David did not think long as he had a task to complete. The men quickly completed their assignments.

"David, what the hell are you doing? I said I needed a spreader." Jenn glanced around and noticed that no one was getting her what she needed. "Fine. I'll get it myself!" She jogged with a purpose towards the engine.

"Jennifer!" Captain called out. She ignored her name being called as she was focused with the list she had in her head. Grab the spreader. Pop the door open. Put a collar on. Get a back board. Check vitals. Captain Gage jogged at a quicker pace until he was close enough to grab her arm. With her reflexes, she ripped her arm from his grasp and landed her forearm to his stomach out of reflex. His body arched slightly upon contact with his stomach. He grabbed her arm again, but a little tighter. "Jenn, she's gone." Jenn stared down at the ground, shook her head, and started to pick at her cuticles. It was her nervous habit. "Right now you have two people you can help in the other vehicle."

Her head popped up. "But cap, there...there's got to be something we can do. We've got to help." Johnny walked away from her and went to a compartment on the engine. He grabbed a blanket and returned to Jenny. He placed it in her hand. "You can protect her from the gawkers and then get back to those that can still be saved." He walked over to check on his paramedics, leaving her standing alone holding a yellow blanket. That's when she glanced around and took note of the entire scene. People were starting to get out of their cars to get a better view of the accident.

Her head hung low with defeat as she walked towards the damaged car. The yellow blanket blew in the wind as she removed the blanket from the package. She slipped her body back through the driver's window and did her best to cover up the woman. "I'm sorry," she whispered. Her hands gripped the edge of the window and she pushed herself out. One last glance back at the yellow blanket. "I'm so sorry I couldn't help you." She walked to the other car trying to not think of the feeling of nausea in the pit of her stomach.

Randy claimed the job to transport the two patients in the ambulance because "he couldn't stand to be around someone so incompetent," he announced to the crew. It wasn't the time nor the place to reprimand Randy, but he would. Johnny believed he found the person who was responsible for the pictures.